Paris Extends Curfew to Monday as Marseille and Lyon Ban Weekend Protests After Riots

Paris is extending its nighttime curfew in parts of the capital through Monday morning, while Marseille and Lyon have banned all protests this weekend, as France braces for fresh demonstrations a week after riots and looting swept the country.

Police in Paris said the curfew covering the Place de la République, where protesters gathered last weekend, and the Les Halles shopping district will remain in place until Monday. Movement in both areas is prohibited from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time, the capital’s prefecture said, adding that Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu had ordered the extension.

The Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay and the Picasso museum will be closed on Saturday. Public transport in Marseille will be suspended for the day. Marseille and Lyon have imposed outright bans on demonstrations, and curfews or gathering bans have also been announced in Nice, Toulon, central Rouen and Grenoble. In the Rhône region, a curfew for minors will be extended to the entire population overnight on Saturday, from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Macron points at far-left groups

President Emmanuel Macron met with ministers and intelligence chiefs on Thursday to prepare for Saturday’s planned demonstrations. He said only demonstrations organized by trade unions would be permitted, with alternative routes offered by prefects. “When they’re not union organisations, wherever possible, they’ll be banned,” he said, according to the BBC.

Macron attacked what he called “political and even seditious acts organised by far-left groups that aim to bring down the Republic,” and the Washington Examiner reported that government intelligence reports assert the left-wing party La France Insoumise actively promoted the unrest. Lecornu said evidence “clearly” showed left-wing groups seeking to foment disorder from now until the 2027 presidential election. A readout from an Oct. 1 intelligence meeting that leaked to the public said agencies assessed the movement as “an operation organized by LFI (France Unbowed) and its proxies on the far left,” according to the Examiner. LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who sent party coordinator Manuel Bompard to Thursday’s meeting instead of attending himself, accused the government of “shifting the blame by accusing LFI of violence that it has always rejected.”

2,700 arrested, 217 jailed in fast-track trials

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said authorities had arrested 2,700 people across France and that more than 1,000 had appeared in court. Darmanin said 217 people had been jailed in fast-track trials, with that number expected to rise, and told Le Figaro that half of those detained had no prior criminal record. Interior Minister Jean-Didier Berger said police deployments would be increased by 20% compared with last weekend, after the government was accused of being blindsided by the scale of the unrest.

The unrest followed largely peaceful demonstrations on Oct. 17 that drew about 550,000 people against the rising cost of living and fuel prices. Some marches broke down into looting and clashes: Lyon’s tourism office was set on fire, and in Limoges the clock tower and parts of the city hall roof were engulfed in flames. A second suspect, aged 66, was arrested on Thursday in the Limoges case, after a man in his 30s was detained on suspicion of the attempted murder of police officers who were inside the building. In Marseille, more than 500 businesses were damaged, and the Place de la République in Paris was vandalized. The unrest comes as Macron enters the final months of his presidency, with elections scheduled for April 18 and May 1 next year.

Reporting based on coverage by the BBC and the Washington Examiner.